A library, a community

When Suzi and I moved into our house, one of the first things we did was go down to the local library to get library cards.

It wasn’t just so we could borrow books, but it felt like a way to say we were part of the community.

Advertisement

Screwing up my own revenge

Who doesn’t have someone from their past, or present, that they can’t stand?

Maybe it’s the high school or college classmate who was a bully.

Maybe it’s the obnoxious boss who made work a nightmare.

Maybe it’s someone who was a friend before a falling-out.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get revenge on them, somehow?

A ‘basic’ rule … I’ll do me, you do you

My wife and I noticed the line was starting to form outside Brookline Booksmith a little after 4 p.m.

As we were eating pizza and meatballs across the street at Otto, we watched the line grow until it extended around the corner of the building and down to the end of the block.

Turns out, a lot of people wanted to see Stassi Schroeder.

Seven days of my books and me

Reggie Jackson was my first favorite baseball player and I always read way above my grade level as a kid …

… which is how I wound up reading a book published when I was 9 that had the expression “uppity (you know the word, starts with ‘n’)” in the third paragraph and “If bull—- was religion, he’d be the Pope” on Page 9.

When I don’t want to read it … I don’t

I saw a word today that filled me with dread at the sight of it …

… “Caldecott.”

For the uninitiated, the Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children “to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children,” but why would that, of all things, send a tiny chill up my spine?

Black Friday bookstore

I do most of my Christmas shopping at the Mall of My iPad — open 24 hours, no traffic, no lines, no parking, no other people.

However, my mother-in-law likes to go with my wife the day after Thanksgiving, so my father-in-law and I joined in for the trip to the shopping plaza near their home in Connecticut.

They went off and did their thing; I hung out at the bookstore, mostly adding to my own list.

The definitive guide to books you absolutely must read

You know all those “Great Books” you were told to read in school or heard that you should read because … well, because they’re great?

Yeah … not so much.